Incomplete list of healthcare related layoffs and shutdowns, January 2016.
California: Health insurance company Blue Shield of California eliminating at least 99 jobs at their Lodi call center, apparently forcing people to buy ObamaCare insurance is generating enough captive audience profits. In Long Beach, Molina Hospital Management eliminating 385 jobs by the end of February! In Torrance, “premier Women’s Health laboratory” Pathology eliminating 388 jobs by the end of March! It’s directly connected to December’s takeover of Pathology by a company called LabCorp. What did you get when you got laid off? It’s been revealed that Newark based StemCells Incorporated gave its recently ‘resigned’ CEO a $1-million USD severance package! Germany based medical plastics maker Balda C. Brewer shutdown its relatively new Irvine factory, 193 jobs lost in February! American Medical Response shutdown their Modesto billing center, in total 330 jobs were eliminated! After losing a federal level lawsuit the Alameda County Jail system laid off 49 nurses at the end of December, the current nursing staff says conditions at the massive county jail system are “…a mad house right now. It’s crazy, it’s really difficult. We’re severely understaffed and we’re basically working with a skeleton crew. The nursing staff that are there currently are worn out.”-Melissa Brown, licensed vocational nurse at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.
Connecticut: Affinity Health Care Management bankrupt busted just five years after their last bankruptcy, but this time it’s because Medicaid payments are being held back by the state Department of Social Services! Court documents stated that if the failed state ObamaCare loving government continues not to reimburse Medicaid services then Affinity Health Care Management will cease to exist!
Florida: In Coral Gables, Preferred Medical Plan laid off 35 employees. In Orlando, Nephron Pharmaceuticals issued a mass layoff WARN, 250 people becoming unemployed by April! (is it because Jeb Bush made a campaign stop there?) Orlando based Total Sleep Management now chapter 11 bankrupt busted. Administrators blame ObamaCare: “The sleep industry ran into trouble around 2013. Pre-authorizations became a requirement for most private insurers. We lost about 40% of our revenue.”
Idaho: A sure sign that healthcare costs are going up, the state Department of Health and Welfare is requesting a $26.3-million USD budget increase! Administrators are now saying the previous 3.9% increase is not enough to fund the new mandate (Primary Care Access Program) to cover the 78-thousand Idahoans who fall into the Right to Work (you over) ObamaCare gap! Mental healthcare provider Optum has revealed it’s sitting on $5-million USD in unspent Idaho Medicaid funding! This is significant because Optum’s parent company United Health claims it lost $1-billion in 2015 (see Minnesota below)! It’s been revealed by the state Office of Performance Evaluations that Psychosocial Rehabilitation Counselor (aka PSR or Psycho Social Rehabilitation workers) jacked up costs to Idaho Medicaid nine times over a ten years period. In 2001 PSR costs were $8-million USD, by 2012 costs hit $76-million! In 2013 the state tried to counter by pushing for more “managed” inpatient care, however that is backfiring because many providers are confused by the regulations which are causing problems with care.
More Gem State Right to Work (you over) ObamaCare bull-shit; “Ferch, a Boise chiropractor, had received notice from Regence BlueShield of Idaho that the health insurance company was cutting back its payments for ‘adjustments’ — his most common procedure — to 1990s levels. Ferch and a handful of fellow chiropractors met with the medical director for Regence. Ferch asked whether the medical director’s salary was the same as it had been in the 1990s. The room went silent……
….In Idaho, mutual insurance companies also differ from federal tax-exempt nonprofits in that they do not tell the public what they pay their leaders. Idaho law forbids regulators from divulging that information.”–SeattlePI
Illinois: In Streator, God couldn’t stop ObamaCare from forcing ‘his’ Saint Mary’s Hospital from laying off 1-hundred employees! Another 2-hundred employees affected as the hospital shifts to out-patient care services! The Affordable Care Act does not pay enough to cover the costs of inpatient care. In Orland Park, Palos Community Hospital shutting down their Palos Health & Fitness center in May. In a round-a-bout way administrators said ObamaCare was forcing them to “prioritize” their services. God refusing to stop ‘his’ Lutheran Social Services (LSSI) from shutting down 30 offices across the state, and laying off 750 people! LSSI is the largest social services operator in the state and blames moronic state ‘lawmakers’ for failing to come up with a budget, resulting in non-profit LSSI being owed $6-million USD: “After 7 months, we no longer can provide services for which we aren’t being paid.”-Mark Stutrud, President and CEO
Maryland: Shenanigans with taxpayer money, this time employees at the state run Springfield Hospital Center are questioning why they’re being laid off when the hospital supposedly has a surplus of money! At least 57 people will lose their jobs under the govna’s proposal to privatize the mental hospital, supposedly to save money. However, state Senate President Thomas V. Miller revealed that the Springfield Hospital Center is actually projected to have a surplus of more than $400-million USD!!!
Massachusetts: DePuy Synthes warned it might be forced to conduct mass layoffs at its Raynham medical device factory in connection to the massive Johnson & Johnson’s layoffs. Raynham city administrators are pissed because they gave DePuy massive tax breaks to prevent them from moving the factory to Indiana. Nashoba Valley Medical Center began reducing nursing jobs as they reduce Emergency Room operations (under ObamaCare).
Minnesota: New Jersey based medical tech company C.R. Bard shutting down their Stewartville factory. Since C.R. Bard took over the plant in 2013 at least 247 jobs gone, some to Mexico! Minnetonka based United Health blames ObamaCare for causing it to lose $1-billion USD, massive job cuts coming! United Health is considering getting the hell outta the Affordable Care Act exchange system!
New Jersey: New Brunswick based Johnson & Johnson announced it is eliminating 3-thousand medical device jobs over the next two years! ObamaCare taxes, the bad economy, and plans to take over medical device maker rivals are forcing them to cut $1-billion USD in costs!
New York: Orleans Community Health announced layoffs for Medina Memorial Hospital because ObamaCare forced it to become a ‘Critical Access Hospital’ treating less patients, meaning less employees. In Smithtown and Riverhead, Developmental Disabilities shutting down its OPTI-HEALTHCARE operations, 46 jobs lost by the end of April. A Fortune article says NYC based drugs pusher Pfizer jacked up prices (again?) on 105 drugs by as much as 20%!
Ohio: The Ohio Health Nelsonville Medical and Emergency Services facility shutdown their emergency room operations earlier than expected. Administrators blame ObamaCare for forcing 80% of customers to go to urgent care operations instead. Lakewood Hospital ending inpatient service in February, eventually the hospital will be replaced with a smaller clinic operation. After four years virtual telemedicine health provider connector HealthSpot now chapter 7 bankrupt busted and being liquidated. The plan was to set up remote kiosks in which people could access medical coverage help under this ObamaCare regime. However, despite raising $48-million USD and building 191 kiosks, 137 of those kiosks are still sitting in storage unused! The other 54 kiosks that were set up in retail locations, like RiteAid, are not in use. In Blue Ash, medical device maker Ethicon could layoff all 824 employees in connection to the massive Johnson & Johnson’s layoffs! (local news reports say at one point Ethicon employed 1,200+ people in Blue Ash) In Liberty, Campus Health Care nursing home suddenly shutdown after its Tennessee based owner went bankrupt. Residents are being rescued from the nursing home that local news media discovered was considered “the worst of the worst” by federal regulators!
Oregon: Medical device maker Greatbatch eliminated at least 140 jobs in Beaverton, as the company moves production to Mexico (probably to avoid the new ObamaCare medical device tax)!
Pennsylvania: Lehigh Valley Health Network warning that it must shutdown five offices across two counties! LVHN rep Brian Downs said they didn’t know when the shutdowns would take place, or how many people will lose their jobs, but warned “This is health care today. This is an ongoing thing.” Emmaus based publisher of health magazines Rodale eliminated 40 jobs in an effort to “focus on growing the business”.
South Carolina: Barnwell County’s only hospital shutdown! The 140 employees of Southern Palmetto Hospital said they were notified in an emergency meeting on a Tuesday that they were losing their jobs that Thursday! The emergency meeting was called by the Director of Nursing, local news says hospital administrators refuse to talk to them and county administrators swear they know nothing about it.
Washington: Reports say Vancouver based non-profit healthcare provider PeaceHealth laid off at least 150 employees across Alaska, Washington and Oregon, in an attempt to remain financially viable under ObamaCare.
ObamaCare job destruction, 4th quarter 2015: “The straw that broke the camel’s back…the Affordable Care Act…”